mine would sit there all day ticking over,fans would cut in then go off all as should do but as soon as i went down the road it would get hot,i changed all the simple things first ie thermostat etc didnt think 2 replace the rad as i had only recently put it on seconhand,changed the head gasket and the car was no different,pulled the pipes off the bottom of rad and the water that came out of one side of the rad seemed dirtyer than the other changed the rad and no problems, maybe your pipes will be hotter one side of the rad than the other but mine seemed ok but it was deffinatly the rad on mine fr the price of a rad its prob worth a try hope i have been of help cheeRS